When describing Enthusiast Group to people in the know, invariably the discussion turns to comparing us some of the blog networks out there like Nick Denton's Gawker and Jason Calcanis' Weblogs Inc..

The reasons are obvious.

Like the legacy (hee hee) blog networks, each of our sites will have a lead blogger (which we call an Enthusiast-in-Chief) and in the early days of a site that person drives the majority of content. Witness all the posts by Walker Thompson on YourMTB.com.

But from the get-go we envisioned that the community members themselves will want a voice, and not just in comments responding to Walker. So we designed the site so that anyone can post anything at any time unless we deem it inappropriate or spammy. And if it's really good, we'll post it on the front page.

So because of this difference, I often refer to Enthusiast Group as not a blog network, but a bloggy network. Bloggish in tone and in the way we think about editorial decisions, but broader in scope and therefore (we hope) allowing our members to get more out of the site.

Also, the nature of the way our content used is a little different from most blogs. By definition, a mountain biking fanatic is most in the moment when s/he's out riding on the trail, not sitting in front of a computer. So we're shooting for content that helps them 1) get on the trail more often 2) riding on the best trails in their area and 3) kicking ass more and more each time they do it. (That last part was clarified for us by the brilliant Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, who we're proud to have on our advisory board.)